Michael McCleery

Photos with Michael McCleery

Biography

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Michael McCleery was born in Chicago, Ill. Aug. 18th 1959 to Robert S. McCleery and Virginia Kavanaugh McCleery. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Nashville, Tenn. where his father, an M.D. and vascular-surgeon, taught surgery at Vanderbilt Medical School, where a scholarship exists in his honor. Having been a thrice decorated WW-II officer in the U.S. Army who created the very first surgical team to jump w/Army Paratroopers in the Far-East theatre he was very influential in seeing that WW-II veterans were given their just-due in post-war medical care. Read more... Michael was raised in the Irish-Catholic religion.

Michael McCleery attended pre-school in Nashville whereupon the family moved to Great Falls, Mt. where his brother Gary was born. Dr. McCleery was the Chief-Surgeon at Great Falls General Hospital before moving the family to the east-coast in the late '60's to work as a Medical-Advertising executive on Madison-Ave. The family lived in the bucolic town of Princeton, N.J., where Michael saw his first Shakespearean productions at the McCarter Theatre and his interest in the dramatic-arts was spawned.

As a teenager at Princeton High School, he was introduced by a family friend to the legendary casting-director Marian Dougherty in New York City who brought him into read for "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" a film starring Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle. Michael played the role of the juvenile car-thief from Boston and the next year, 1974, he played the role of the "Mugger" who accosts Art Carney on a Manhattan street in "Harry & Tonto", for which Art Carney received the Academy Award for best-Actor.

Having graduated high-school, Michael chose to attend the Colorado Collge in Colo. Springs, Colo. where he matriculated for several years, studying English Literature and American History and performing in various productions in the local theatre. He left Colorado College without a degree and returned to New York City and began to study at the Stella Adler Conservatory with Ms. Adler, specializing in her scene-study and script-analysis sessions. In 1980, Michael McCleery played the role of the psychotic young killer, Addley, in the cult-horror film "Mother's Day" where after he returned to New York City and began to audition for New York theatrical productions. He played a variety of roles in off-off B-way and then off-B'way productions, including "Prairie Ave." and "The Hospital Play" at Joe Papp's Public Theatre, while continuing to study with the acting-coach Larry Moss in Manhattan.

In 1990 Michael made the move to Los Angeles and was in a supporting role by Sondra Locke in "Impulse", the only feature film she directed. The next year he appeared in another supporting in "The Fires Within" directed by the renowned Australian director Gillian Armstrong. Shortly thereafter, feeling the strong pull of a boyhood-dream, he returned to his beloved Montana, where he worked for a family friend on their cattle-ranch outside of Great Falls, performing all tasks to the raising of beef cattle, and gaining a greater respect & knowledge of the American-cowboy-way.

He returned to L.A. in 1994 and through a friend in casting he grabbed a leading role in the Met Theatre's production of James Moody's "The Fool", the story of Sir Francis Drake's voyage through the Straits of Magellan and up the west coast of South-America & on to what is now the San-Francisco Bay. "The Fool" was directed by the late-great character Jim Gammon, who performed so memorably in "Lonesome Dove". There he was spotted by the well-known casting-director, the late Mali Finn, who brought him into read for James Ellroy's "L-A-Confidential" and was cast in the role of Det. Carlisle, directed by Curtis Hanson. Following that he played the lead opposite Muse Watson in the independent release "If I Die..." and then played a strong supporting role in the Fox-2000 film "Best Laid Plans" with Reese Witherspoon & Josh Brolin. He then played the role of Sheriff Akins in John Dahl's cult-horror film "Joy Ride" with Paul Walker & Steve Zahn released in 2001. The next year he had a supporting in "The United States of Leland" produced by and starring Kevin Spacey. Michael then took a "leave of absence" from show-business and became a respected and successful personal-trainer. Then, in 2012 he returned to acting in the HBO series "Luck" produced by Michael Mann and playing opposite Nick Nolte.